The Lay of Leithian...

The Lay of Leithian is an unfinished poem written by J. R. R. Tolkien. It tells the Tale of Beren and Lúthien, the story of the love of the mortal Man Beren and the immortal Elf maiden Lúthien. The poem consists of over 4200 verses. It was published after Tolkien's death in The Lays of Beleriand. Its precedents are found in the Welsh tale of Culhwch and Olwen in the manuscripts, the Red Book of Hergest and the earlier White Book of Rhydderch.

Beren ~ son of Emeldir and Barahir, a Man of the royal House of Bëor of Dorthonion. His romance with the first-born is one of the great stories of the Elder Days.

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Dorthonion ("Land of Pines"), poetically Orod-na-Thôn ("Mountain under Pine"), was a highland region of the First Age. Within the stories it later became known as Taur-nu-Fuin ("Forest under Night"), or Mirkwood.

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Lúthien ~ an elf, daughter of Thingol and Melian. She appears in The Silmarillion, the epic poem The Lay of Leithian, the Grey Annals section of The War of the Jewels, and in other texts in Tolkien's legendarium. Her story is told to Frodo by Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.

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Lúthien is a Telerin (Sindarin) princess, the only child of Elu Thingol, king of Doriath, and his queen, Melian the Maia. The legacy that Lúthien left behind can be most clearly seen throughout the later ages in those who stem from her ancestry, including the Royal Family of Númenor, being the line of Elros of which Arathorn and his son Aragorn were descended, and Elrond Half-elven who was Lúthien's great-grandson. She is described as the Morning Star of the Elves and as the most beautiful daughter of Ilùvatar.

Lúthien's descendant Arwen is called Evenstar, the Evening Star of the Elves, meaning that her beauty reflects that of Lúthien Tinúviel. Lúthien is also the first cousin once removed to Galadriel.

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Teleri, Those who come last in Quenya (singular Teler) were the third of the Elf clans who came to Aman. Those who came to Aman became known as the Falmari or "sea elves" and these are the Elves who are generally known as Teleri, though the term also includes their Middle-earth cousins the Sindar, Laiquendi, and Nandor of Middle-earth.

The third clan was the largest of the three houses of the Elves, and most of the Avari originally belonged to this clan.

Aman, also known as the Undying Lands or Blessed Realm, it is the home of the Valar, and three kindreds of Elves: the Vanyar, some of the Noldor, and some of the Teleri.

 Edith (Lúthien) and Tolkien (Beren)

The story was published as a standalone book edited by Christopher Tolkien under the title Beren and Lúthien on 1 June 2017. It is painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story. The intent of the book is to extract a 'single narrative' out of the ever-evolving materials that make up The Tale of Beren and Luthien. It does not contain every version or edit to the story, but those chosen by Christopher Tolkien which he believed would offer the most 'clarity' without the need to over-explain the complexities of the changes.

The BBC Radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings includes a scene from The Fellowship of the Ring in which Aragorn summarizes the story of Beren and Lúthien for Frodo Baggins and his companions. Frodo later comes to realise the connection between their story and that of Aragorn and Arwen.

love and light,

Trace

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